Whiteyball
A few thoughts on the 1985 Cardinals
Whiteyball
I did a deep dive into the 1985 Cardinals a few weeks ago. I found a number of things that surprised me, actually. I always thought that I had a good understanding of the famous speed first Cardinals, but, upon careful consideration, I was actually wrong.
The Cardinals were more about power than speed. That sounds odd for a team that was close to the bottom in home runs in 1985. However, if you look at the stats closely, you’ll realize that Vince Coleman was not a substantially different baserunner than Lonnie Smith was in 1984. Adding Jack Clark is what put the Cardinals over the top.
The pitching was fantastic. Remember when I said the other day that the 2024 White Sox were hitting like it was 1908 and pitching like it was 1949? The opposite was true of the 1985 Cardinals. The pitching was simply fantastic. I’m guessing that some of that had to do with playing on artificial turf with pitchers who loved getting ground balls. Having Ozzie Smith at shortstop certainly didn’t hurt.
Whitey Herzog always managed like this. A glance at the 1976 Kansas City Royals is really all that you need to understand Whiteyball. Herzog loved managing teams that would run, and was more than happy to have his team run itself out of rallies and innings from time to time. Honestly, I think those Royals teams in the late 1970s would have made it to a few more World Series if they weren’t so busy being caught stealing by Thurman Munson. “Billyball” was actually just Whiteyball.
Artificial turf was ridiculous. We always think fondly of the past. However, the critics of artificial turf were absolutely right. It did bizarre things to the game. It’s really strange to look back and watch Willie McGee get base hits on balls slapped down right in front of the plate. It’s strange to see balls hit to the gap in left field or right field turn into triples simply because of how the ball bounced on the ground. Sure, there was a lot more baserunning in those days — but it seems strange, almost like it was a different sport.
The game would still get bogged down. Pitchers throwing endlessly to first was a huge problem in those days. This is best shown by this clip of Vince Coleman attracting 17 pickoff throws:
There’s no question that the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals were one of the greatest teams of all time. However, I think there absolutely is a question as to whether baseball was a better sport in 1985.
Stolen base success rates are about 5% higher on artificial turf. This is equivalent to a +1 bonus in Strat or Season Ticket. In theory it would be realistic to add this bonus to steal attempts in those games, but then you'd have to go back and recalculate the ratings.
I played a lot of stratomatic baseball in those days.
The 1985 Cardinals had very impressive cards. The defense was excellent. I am working off pure memory here, but I recall Andy Van Slyke, McGee, and Ozzie all being a "1" at their position. I think Herr and Pendleton were a "2". But yes, a lot of speed (A, AA, AAA for stolen bases) and a lot of pitching depth. They showed how you didn't need to have a much power if you had everything else.